


Meanings

by Solembum



Series: The Pier [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Flower meanings, Flowers, M/M, Natasha Is a Good Bro, Pepper is apparently scary af, Thor blushes, Thor is a gent, Tony is a little shit, and it fucking weirds Clint out, but in a good way, if that makes sense, lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 10:13:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13634211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solembum/pseuds/Solembum
Summary: Things have different meanings to different people. This can apply from everything to poptarts to flowers.





	Meanings

Clint Barton was a simple man.

Wait, that came out wrong. Let’s try again.

Clint Barton was a man of simple needs.

Still not coming across right.

Clint Barton was a man of special needs.

Hilarious for the wrong reason but still not right.

 

“What the actual fuck are you doing now?” Clint asked looking down at the scribbled piece of paper. Tony, the owner of said paper, didn’t look up but instead kept alternating between writing and scratching words out. “I’m  _ trying _ to write a soulful eulogy for your funeral, but the words just aren’t flowing right.” 

 

Clint frowned and tried to think of a reason for why he’d be dying today but honestly he was left blank. Natasha was out on a mission in Rome and hating every moment of it from the snapchats he was getting so he really hadn’t had time to do anything warranting her ire. Bruce offered him nothing but science puns and gross smelling tea so that’s a no. Steve? Maybe he finally got tired of his fake history lessons. He’d been on meal cleanup two weeks straight after nearly convincing the captain that  _ Independence Day _ had actually been a historic film based off the actual events. And then Sam had to come and ruin it by showing Steve  _ Fresh Prince _ which sort of ruined his credibility. It’d been funny as hell though.

 

“Nothing’s ringing any bells, mind actually telling me what I did wrong?” he finally came out and asked snorting to himself having read another sentence. Smartest man in the room and he still put two r’s in “harangue”. Tony sighed in a dramatic fashion (so normal) and stood up from the island stool he’d been sitting and went to the trashcan and pointed. “Do you know what’s in there.”

Clint raised an eyebrow silently asking he really wanted his answer. The man of science rolled his eyes exasperatingly. “ _ Besides _ the obvious, Legolas.”

 

“Still not picking up what you’re throwing.”

 

“You’re killin’ me, Smalls. Like, seriously.”   
  


“From Lord of the Rings to Sandlot, you really are an eclectic man.”

 

“I think the word you were looking for is ‘amazing’ but I’ll let it slide because you know, impending death and all.”

 

“For the love, what the hell are-”

 

“You, my good sir, ate the last of the last package of poptarts belonging to a certain god of Thunder, Lightning, and the Non-Rhetorical.” As if summoned by the god himself, the toaster dinged and popped out the two pastries he had put in just minutes before talking to Tony filling the air with the smell of artificial berries. Well shit. 

 

“No problem, I can just buy him some more. Why are you making such a big deal out of this?”

 

“Because Sailor Mars, those were the last ones his fair maiden bought him.” Any amusement at the sailor moon joke was upended when the full brevity of the situation hit him. When Thor and Jane had split up, she doing the optimal excuse of “it’s not you, it’s me”, the rest of the team hadn’t thought much of it since he seemed fine. Seemed. About a week later Pietro had gone into the kitchen to snag a poptart and Thor had literally throw him out the side kitchen window. No words, no emotion, just a toss. Thank God or whatever the kid could run but they still had to explain to the director and the PR committee why the kid had carved out a good six kilometers of land trying to go against the force of the throw. 

 

Since then it’d been an unspoken rule not to touch or even acknowledge the breakfast pastry and, obviously, no one should eat them. So they made due. And for those like Clint, Pietro, and Tony (who make snide remarks about them tasting like jam filled cardstock while warming himself up the strawberry milkshake flavor) who just sometimes had a hankering, they stocked up and made sure the line didn’t cross. Until today that is. When Clint ate the poptarts. 

Well shit.

“Well shit.” Clint said looking over at the still waiting tarts.

 

“Shit indeed, my friend.” Tony parroted not even trying to hold in his smug countenance the prick. “By the way, what sort of flower arrangements would you like? I assume that with your closed casket funeral you’d want some wow factor.”

 

“The only wow factor there’s going to be is when doctors surgically remove my arrow from lower intestine you son of a-”

 

“Friends! It is much too early for such bickering!”

 

Both men turned in resignation (Clint) and unholy glee (Tony) at seeing Thor clothed in Earth appropriate attire and his usual beaming countenance. His smile slowly began to slide off his face however when he noticed the smell in the air and looked over to see the cooked poptarts still in the toaster. 

 

In the span of three seconds, four things happened: Tony would make a solemn vow to donate to the first charity he saw online no matter its significance, the toaster would definitely need replacing, Steve would throw a complete fit when he eventually sees the state of the kitchen, and Clint would consider himself the luckiest SOB in the entire fucking galaxy. 

 

Any other day of the week Clint would have no problem promptly tossing Tony under the proverbial (and sometimes literal when he was in the suit) bus especially since he knew that if he said it first that Tony had been the one to take them, Thor might actually believe him. Tony’s credibility with the god was at its lowest point since introducing the man to the wonders (read horrors) of Rick Rolling as part of his human experience. Forgetting the fact that the meme was old and tired it was also just a shitty thing to do in general. But he also knew that Tony had finally found his cajones and proposed to Pepper and if there was a human female he feared more than Hill and Natasha, it was definitely a pissed off Virginia Potts. So he did what every seasoned spy was trained not to do and told the truth.

“Sorry about that, I uh, I made them before I remembered who they belonged to. I haven’t touched them or anything if you wanted to take them…” Clint offered hoping, praying, that maybe allowing Thor to finish off his own poptarts would leave them in the clear. This hope was then shattered when Thor promptly took the toaster and tossed it through three inches of reinforced steel wall roughly two inches away from Tony’s head. When he turned back around, Clint thought that maybe he’d been to hasty earlier and should’ve probably mentioned that he loved orchids-   
“It is forgiven. I apologize my friends but I must take leave for a few hours. Please inform the captain of my absence.” 

And then he was gone and there was a hole in the kitchen but a still living Hawkeye.

* * *

 

If anyone were to ask, Clint was surveillancing not stalking. Stalking was a creepy past time of even creepier people and despite what some friends would say (looking at you, Phil) he was not creepy. However he was insanely curious as to what exactly Thor was up to, especially since he wasn’t explaining his past transgressions at the pearly gates. He had originally assumed that the god would be going somewhere to pummel his frustrations elsewhere (which was weird considering they had a nigh-indestructible grym in the center which he and Bruce had personally tested) and was curious as to know where that was. 

 

Instead of going to another gym, Thor had stopped off at a cafe of all places, one of those small time ones with an actual chalkboard easel standing outside the door that looked like the owners’ kids drew on it instead of an art student with a calligraphy fetish. The place was small enough that he was sure to get noticed if he actually followed Thor inside, so instead Clint slid into an outdoor table by the window with a decent view inside. He watched his teammate wait in line with a pensive expression until he reached the barista whom he gave his usual warm congenial smile before ordering what appeared to be a shit ton of pastries. While his back may have been towards Clint, his enthusiastic pointing and nodding definitely helped give explanation. 

 

Once the confused and apparently a tad starstruck worker boxed up all the goods, Thor paid and walked out while the archer stayed seating for a good couple of seconds after he walked past before following. His previous interest was successfully doubled as the man lead them to a florist. An actual fucking florist. He had thought edible arrangement had pretty muchs stamped that out. At least in his opinion. Clint stopped a few feet away from the store and opened his Pokemon Go app to make it appear that he was doing something while keeping an eye out for his target-er, friend. 

 

He managed to capture a nidoran and two eevees before Thor came out with a wrapped package of flowers walking back in his direction. He made a motion to move across the street but unfortunately the god spotted him and stopped in front of him suddenly cutting off his path.

“Clint. This is a...surprise.” Thor looked loss for words and actually sort of befuddled which was definitely a complete 180 from before. Clint just shrugged nonchalantly while hoping no one found out and told Nat about this because seriously, this was just embarrassing. 

 

“Oh you know, a little pokemon hunting, a bit of fresh air. Usual stuff.” he answered waving the screen of his phone a little before shoving it into his pocket. “Do you need any help? Your hands seem kind of full.” he asked gestured towards the other’s packages and was graced with an amazing sight. 

 

Thor fucking blushed. 

 

Like full on, pink on the cheeks blushing. What the actual frickfrack. He was about to ask again since Thor had yet to answer, or really say anything for about fifteen seconds when the man finally spoke.

 

“No! No, I have the, the adequate coordination to handle my load. Thank you.” Weird. Totally weird. “Alright…” Clint trailed off wondering how he was the one feeling off-balance when he’d following the man for the good part of the afternoon. “Well I was about to head back, if you wanted to join me. Or do you still have other-”

 

“No! It would be a delight to walk back to the compound with you!” Thor replied quickly while his blush, his damned blush, actually got brighter. This was just getting ridiculous, he hadn’t even know gods  _ could _ even blush! Deciding not to bring attention to the fact that Thor’s face could potentially power a hospital, Clint just nodded and about faced towards the direction back home. There were a few awkward seconds before the other man realized they were actually supposed to follow before he was joined in stiff silence. Only for a little while though.

 

“So, the purpose of the crushing candy is to...beat all opponents and ascend to the highest level?” Thor asked with an honestly adorable perplexed look on his face while his companion just sighed. 

“I mean kinda? In the most basic of terms. If you want actual plot it gets even more convoluted because then you’re stuck wondering about why a little candy girl was living alone with yeti’s and other mythical beings while giant candy actually fell from the fucking sky. And don’t even get him started on the soda version. Thor hummed in thought, probably just as confused as before but not wanting to talk about it any longer (didn’t blame him) before abruptly changing the subject.

“What were you and Friend Tony speaking about before I arrived?” Well that was a loaded question. Clint bit the side of his cheek for a second while thinking of another answer besides “my possible homicide” before he finally settled on something.

 

“Orchids.”

 

“Orchids? The flower?” Thor asked surprised which again, didn’t blame him.

 

“Yeah y’know, him and Pepper-Virginia I guess-have been planning their wedding and he asked about flowers and what if I had a favorite so…” he trailed off hoping the conversation would end there. 

 

“Oh. Your favorite flower is...the orchid, then?” God, if he thought the blush on Thor’s face before was amazing, the one gracing him now was just brilliant. A lesser person would probably be in a puddle of goop formally known as their hormones, and well to be honest, Clint was barely hanging strong himself. 

“Yeah. Do you have one? A favorite flower, I mean. Obviously.” he asked remembering that he wasn’t supposed to know what the long package was. Thor nodded mutely and it apparently took him a minute to remember how to speak. 

 

“Hyacinths. They are one of the many flower groups who’s different colors have separate meaning.” Clint nodded along like he actually understood what the fuck was happening.

“That sounds familiar. Sort of like how a yellow rose means friendship or something like that, right?” His larger companion frowned and looked over him in confusion and what looked like concern. “Yellow roses symbolize jealousy and a decrease in affection. Who has dishonored you in such a fashion?” Wow. Was it weird to feel flattered and confused at the same time?

 

“No one, at least I don’t think so. It was in a movie, the main guy gave a girl he kind of liked yellow roses and said they meant he wanted to be friends. Though maybe I shouldn’t put too much stock in that since he really only did that so it’d be easier for him to get into her pants later.” At this point Thor had such a look of affrontement that Clint burst out in laughter. 

 

“Some days I believe I am getting closer to understand you all, and then you tell me something like this.” Which of course made him give into more peals of laughter while his friend apparently tried to seem disgruntled but he could see the amusement shining through his eyes and the twitch of a grin. 

 

“Yup, that’s us. Expect the unexpected!” 

* * *

  
  


The walk back to the compound seemed shorter than the one into town, or that was just how it felt to Clint. Especially since he wasn’t making sure to stay a certain length behind Thor this time. Which sort of left the archer at an odds since he had assumed the other would go straight indoors to either put up his stuff or at the very least send them out to be delivered, but instead he was still awkwardly standing in front of him in front of the building. Not weird at all. He was about to do the lie about how he has laundry to do (which actually might not be a lie since he wasn’t entirely sure if he had any actually clean pants left or the state of his sock drawer) when he was again stopped by the thunder god. He waited to see what he needed, but instead had the box of pastries and flowers thrust into his hands by a silent and-fucking _ hell _ -blushing man. 

 

“They are not orchids, however I believe they get my point across thusly.” was all he said which yeah. Totally give him flowers and a box of food and leave him with a fucking adlib because he was some sort of genius. 

 

“Ok, I must be missing something important because I am totally lost.” Clint finally said looking between the gifts and the man quizzically. Thor, for the most part, just nodded patiently as if he’d been expecting this. Which was great since yeah, still completely adrift. “Natasha had said I might have to be blunt to get my point across and while that is my strong suit, I find that I want to try differently with you.” Ok, shut the front door. 

“Anndd, she’d be right because I’m totally not getting the point so yeah, blunt away.” the spy told him. Maybe he should’ve phrased that differently. Who knows if another phrase would’ve ended with him getting kissed by Thor but maybe that would’ve just been inevitable. And also, sidenote, Thor was a very decent kisser and he’s suddenly not understanding why a, he’d ever thought he wouldn’t be and b, why hadn’t he tried this before? When they finally pulled away, Clint was maybe a tad cross eyed and definitely out of breath while Thor didn’t look the least bit frazzled (fuck) but his blush was back with a vengeance (fuck receded). 

 

“It is my wish to court you, Clint. Natasha has already given her blessing as well as a strongly worded email in that regard.” His brain must still be mush from that kiss but the fuck did he just say? The question however got drowned out by Steve finally seeing what had happened in the kitchen earlier and, as predicted, had a fit.

  
“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED- _ WHY IS THERE A BIRD NESTING IN THE SINK?!” _

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone curious about Thor's reaction to Clint's favorite flower, according to the farmer's almanac, orchids symbolize beauty and refinement and also a symbol for many children. As in, to give an orchid is to give the hope and blessing of many children so yeah, enjoy what you will.


End file.
